Patients desperate for heart transplants in two years’ time could be saved by an artificial heart, powered by Nickel-Cadmium batteries and charged by a car cigarette lighter. The Electrohydraulic Ventricular Assist Device is being developed by a medical team at the Ottawa Heart Institute. The system, which will be used both as a permanent replacement and as a stopgap for patients waiting for transplants, is powered by an external strap-on battery pack that sends power through the body using magnetic induction. The system, which includes an internal battery with 45 minutes power for back-up, can last seven hours on the external unit, which can be recharged up to 700 times from a household outlet or car cigarette lighter. The artificial heart works using a turbine the size of a postage stamp that pumps a hydraulic fluid backwards and forwards to inflate and deflate a diaphragm. The action of the diaphraghm draws blood into one area of the heart and pumps it out of another. Dr Tofy Mussivand, leader of the five-year-old project, expects the system to be in clinical use in 1996 or 1997, following trials on animals being conducted now. The heart is controlled by a two year-old off the shelf Intel chip which Mussivand would not name, although he is looking for a smaller, more reliable alternative. Most other components were developed and made by Mussivand’s team, although the valves were made by Metronic. Dr Mussivand, who predicts that the heart could cost under UKP30,000, will take it to Europe and possibly Japan. The flight simulator manufacturer CAE Electronics Ltd, Toronto is already a partner in the project and will help enhance the electronics used. CAE has put up part of the cash for the project, which has used up $20m to date.
